1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sample processing apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a sample processing apparatus for carrying out processes such as aspirating a sample in a sample container with an aspirating tube, analyzing the aspirated sample, and preparing the blood smear sample.
2. Description of the Related Art
A sample container in which the internal volume of the sample container is reduced by positioning the bottom on the inner side of the sample container to the upper side is conventionally known (see e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. 5-36364). The sample container described in Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. 5-36364 is a push-up bottom type in which the bottom portion on the inner side of the container is positioned on the upper side, and includes a recess on the outer side of the bottom portion of the container.
An analyzer for detecting the type of sample container and controlling the lowering amount of the aspirating tube so that the aspirating tube inserted into the container to aspirate the sample in the sample container does not touch the inner side of the bottom portion of the container and be damaged is also known (see e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-264340). The analyzer described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-264340 detects the type of sample container by causing the barcode reader to read the barcode, which contains information on the type of sample container, attached to the side surface of the sample container, and controls the lowering amount of the aspirating tube in correspondence with the detected type. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-264340 also describes that the analyzer may control the lowering amount of the aspirating tube in correspondence with the type of sample container by inputting information of the sample container with a keyboard, or the like.
If two types of sample containers, a push-up bottom type sample container including a recess on the outer side of the bottom portion of the container as in Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. 5-36364 and a non-push-up type normal container not including a recess on the outer side of the bottom portion are used in the analyzer described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-264340, the barcode containing information on the type of sample container is attached to the side surface of the sample container, the content is read by the barcode reader to detect which of the two types of sample containers the sample container is, and the lowering amount of the aspirating tube needs to be controlled in correspondence with the detected type. Furthermore, the lowering amount of the aspirating tube needs to be controlled in correspondence with the type of sample container if the information of the sample container is input by keyboard, or the like.
However, if the barcode is used for the detection of the type of sample container, the type of sample container may not be correctly read if the barcode is attached to an inappropriate position by mistake or the barcode is dirty. Furthermore, it is troublesome to input the type of sample container by keyboard, or the like each time.
In view of such situations, it is an object of the present invention to provide a sample processing apparatus capable of detecting the push-up type sample container including a recess on the outer side of the bottom portion of the container and performing an appropriate aspiration while alleviating the load of the user with a simple configuration.